Big Lots - Classic Toy Trains Magazine

I read somewhere--I think it was here--last year about someone finding something called a "Mini Express Train Set" at Big Lots that contained four O gauge figures. I went looking then, couldn't find any, and gave up. Then I found three today.

The price, if you're wondering, is $1.99. What you get is four assorted figures, all sized appropriately for O gauge (the adult figures scale out right around 6 feet, and the set I bought has a child who scaled out to about 4'6), a battery-operated locomotive, a caboose, and a 10-inch circle of track. I guess it's supposed to be N gauge. The locomotive is oversized for the caboose you get.

I just wasted way too much time with the locomotive and caboose and the track. It's junk. At least I figured out why it's junk--too much slop in the drive axle, so the gear can slip and not make contact with the can motor.

Still, it might be good enough to stick on my desk at work and run when I'm frustrated and I want to watch a train go in circles to help me relax a little.

On to the figures, which were the real reason I got the thing. Four painted figures for two bucks is a good deal, I think. The paint job is super-simple but at worst they're suitable back-of-the-layout figures, or inside-building figures. They're made of a flexible plastic--definitely not styrene--so I don't know how well they'd take to new paint, and if you're seeking out cheap conversion projects, I don't know how well they'd take glue. The upside to them is they'll survive a lot of rough handling as-is and they look passable.

Not all the stores have them all the time. I've known about it for a good six months and this was the first I've seen it, out of three Big Lots stores in my area. Keep an eye out for a blister-packed train set with yellow track and way oversize figures.

While you're there, be sure to wander up and down all of the toy aisles. Sometimes you can find a good selection of 1:43 cars. I also spotted several playsets that had 1:48 or 1:64 scale figures in them. They were priced high enough that I didn't want to buy them just for the figures, but everything was under 10 bucks.